The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-01-20
THE ROAD TO RUIN.

Luxurious.
The worst effects Of the saloon are
seen in connection with the poor, but
it does not follow that the rest of the
community escape. On the contrary.
some of the most startling proofs of
the power of this agency for evil may
be found in the experience of what
may be termed our well-to-do classes.
The evidence attainable here is start
ling, because the contrast between the
warning conditions is so strong. All
over the land there are mothers, pure
of heart and mind, trained in Christian
faith and virtues. full of sweet and
tender and exalted hopes for their
boys. These loving, innocent, pious
women rear their children to the best
of their ability, "in the nurture and adj
monition of the Lord" They endeavor
to keep the young souls stainless until
character is formed. They agonize
over every slip and stumble on the
part of the children. They seek
with all the earnestness of their nature,
aided by all the strength devotion can
supply, to establish the feet of their
little ones firmly. What success do
they attain? Among the convention
alities which serve only to disguise
barbarous, course or disgusting habits
and tendencies, perhaps there is not
one more thoroughly mischievous,
ignoble and degrading than that which
holds it to be proof of manhood and
independence to cast off the mothers
leading-strings." and to signalize the
alleged enfranchisement by the convivi-
ality which consists in getting drunk. 1t
has been the base custom to speak
of this kind of thing as natural and
inevitable reaction from the WELL
meant but enervating sentimentalism
of the maternal solicitudc. But there
is no validity in this pretense. The
reaction spoked of is simply that from
virtue to vice. 1t is the abandonment
of right for wrong. 1t is the substitu-
ton of that which is unmanly vile,
debasing, for that which is truly manly,
honorable and elevating.
Yet society witnesses the introduce
|
an indulgent smile. The boys at coll
lege are taught (not, be it understood,
in the curriculum) that it is rather a
fine thing to drink, and that the effects
of a debauch, though decidedly dis
agreeable, are in no way cause for
shame. In other circles, where boys
enter business earlier, dissipation is
considered an evidence of special spirit.
This trait is SO general that humorists
have often made use of it to point some
merry tale, and generations have
laughed unrestrainedly over the bib
ulous proclivities whose indulgence for
a comparatively short period in youth
assures physical and mental wreck.
The boy leaves his home, cuts loose
from his wise and tender mother, is
plunged into q crowd of young men
| whose chief ambition seems to
be to emulate the worst vices
of their seniors. He is taken to
the saloon, which is carefully prepared
for the educated and refined visitor.
Not for him the naked ugliness of the
tenement-house gin-shop, or the water
front den. An aesthetic taste has been
invoked to beautify the spacious rooms.
Color in its most attractive application
floods the place from variegated lamp.
shades, frescoed ceilings, tassellated
pavements. gilded bars and voluptuous
paintings. All that luxury can effect
is done to heighten the sense of physical
comfort. The service is swift, supple,
efficient. The wines and liquors are
free from adulteration and of sterling
brands. An air. of calm enjoyment
pervades the saloon. The young man
is quite carried away by all this splen'
dor and luxury. He takes it to him.
self, as it was intended that he should
do. He begins to be proud Of his par
ticipation in so magnificent a specta
Gle. He yields without pause or {
thought to the solicitations of his com
panions.
What is it that he is doingP Merely
what all the world does, no doubt ont
reply will be. But if all the world ha.
SO far forgotten itself as to see no harm
in self-degradation it is time the trutl
was told. The boy may not get drunk a
the saloon; there are plenty of young
men who can drink moderately, NJ
doubt. But whether he drinks little
or much, he can not escape contamina
tion il he frequents place all the as
sociations Of, all the emanations from
which are debasing and corrupting
The most callous cynic will not dare t.
assert that young men ever learn goot
in the saloon. Every man of the worl'
knows that they learn evil there abun
dainty. 1t is the focus and distributing
point Of sensuality as well as Of intem
perance. Its conversation is impure
Its rights are provocative. Its influ
enccs are demoralizing. 1t is the an
tipodes Of the home presided over b,
the pure and pious mother. 1t is tn
filthy pool into which society filings it
young men. under the plea Of harden
ing them.
II In this foul atmosphere they acquir
the tone of o new world; they fit O
their incipient vices; they accuston
themselves to low views Of man
things. The frequenter Of the saloo
can not escape infection. and 1t ID her
that the ideas srs absorbed which.
srits OF the natural chivalry of Amer
cans makes their attitude toward
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